How would you handle a Soldier (one automatically promoted to E-5) with a serious learning disability?

WHAT IN THE HELL IS GOING ON IN THE MILITARY!!!!!!!!
Automatic promotion???? Learning Disability ?????

Rank should be earned, not automatically given...... As far as a learning disability the military nor the government is your babies daddy...... What happened to Lead, Follow, or get the fuck outta the way .... And my wording should not be found offensive because I cant help who I am...... I was born that way. If you get what I mean........

Send the Soldier to PCM for referral to Behavioral Health for diagnosis and treatment plan. As an Army COTA, I would suggest a referral to Occupational Therapy for possible treatment options.

Is there anything they are good at like computers or stuff like that? Maybe they need a different job that they can perform better at.

First it is not your job to figure out his disability he has lived with it his whole life sm should be able to tell you how e learns or how he interacts or anything of that nature let alone it is not your responsibility to make the sm succeed it is his career provide resource but you are not their parent nor are you there adult. My main problem with everyone posting is saying you need to figure out how he learns or how to make it to where they can be fixed you aren't the reason they are failing your job is to lead in the most effective way. Said person needs to to after 7 years service up fix problem or get cut loose. It is a common trend we blame leadership when people fail when in fact it is a person issue for the person to know how they function especially as a sgt

You've got some pretty good responses here, SSG Goeller, but let me toss in two cents worth.
In your situation as described, the first thing I think you need to do is get the soldier to medical support to be evaluated for the "diagnosed" and "untreated" learning disability. The individual may well have some issues that are treatable, and if not, that needs to be determined too.
If the soldier's condition can be treated, and therefore his ability to function improved, then you may gain an asset. Depending on your unit's function (CA/CS/CSS) he may be able to progress to a point, but be unqualified for certain CMF/MOS. And if the situation cannot be treated or improved, medical evaluation is necessary to determine whether or not Medical Retirement or other separation from the Army is necessary and in the best interests for the soldier and the good of the Army.
Additionally, and first, as his first line supervisor, your observations, attempts to correct, and written counseling is a MUST. You have obviously observed long enough to be in a quandry, therefore you should be able to provide the chain-of-command with grounds to follow through with the above.
And if it turns out the soldier is just lazy, doesn't want to work, etc, you will determine that too. But give him the support necessary to get him evaluated, treated, or other disposition to be determined by the appropriate Command/Medical level.
That's what I would do, or recommend to my NCOs and Commander.

I had a similar situation with not just one but two soldiers who happened to be brothers. Both of them were transferred to my unit as specialists up for Sgt. They had the same sort of difficulty as you describe in stereo. So after having a conversation with them it became clearer to me that as Sgts. they would never be able to lead a squad or platoon. However, with that said I also became aware of their "intelligence". Turns out that they scored in the 130 range on ASVAB which as anyone knows is well above average. They had me beat by about 5 points so with that I had to give them credit and determine their strong suit which was attention to detail and trouble shooting. The on thing we needed most and did not have was someone to oversee the calibration and maintenance of our sensitive NBC equipment. This activity placed them inside of a secure area with no distractions or need to interact with the company with exception of the routine events. Both of them served out their enlistments completing college and going on to work as civilians in a similar set of circumstances. Last bit of feedback on them indicated they were doing well and thanked me for the opportunity to find their niche in life.

Learning disabilities come in many different forms and only trained professionals can make that determination. Having said that, you have the responsibility to evaluate the SM's performance, ability as it applies to the mission of your unit, document your findings and then present those findings to your COC. Include specific instances where and when the SM's behaviors or lack thereof has had an impact on the performance of other members of the unit or on the unit itself. A good leader must evaluate all aspects of his/her unit's effectiveness in carrying out it's mission and take or recommend corrective measures.

I agree with the Education center. But go with basic apptitude and then try the ASVAB. Additionally, check with ACS and family services. May not make sense, but they have the personnel that can ID what the issue is. Not sure I read it in your post, but you also have to have the Soldiers buy on anything you do.

Set him and yourself up for sucess. Maybe a challenge, in the long run, you yourself will learn from this.

The honest answer is this happens every month, and there ant nothing you can do about it. I don't care about the flack I get for saying this because I'm out so cuss me out or threaten me and see if I care. The promotion system was broke a long time ago, and standards go up and down with every conflict. Don't give the kid any soldiers and assign him to a full time additional duty. You have options, talk to JAG about it. Back in my day pre 2015 soldiers had to pass a TABE that measures our ability to learn. If you fail it prevented attendance to WLC or ALC. The down side is the army would give you the boot for either failure to adapt or failure to seek self-improvement. The discharge was gen. Under honorable conditions.

To me this is a strong indication that others within his unit aren't qualified! What has made our Armed Forces so advanced is standard of competency based on both leadership and competency! Peter Principles was never condoned or acceptable. Then you ask, who qualified this person for enlistment? Was he enlisted under protest 100,000 with a very low score and socially advanced? With all this PC indoctrination and mixes of different genders that require different approaches to standards, it's a foreseeable big problem ahead! You do what you need to do and that's demote him to provide a facsimile of professional leadership! When I first joined the Navy in the mid 50's we had a few sailors without a formal level of education and were good at lower level pay grades and in fact exceeded expectations and performed at that level very well. However, in today's Naval service they may not do as well due to up and out requirements. Standards should never be lowered but increased!